A judge in Utah, United States, ruled this Tuesday that Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old accused of shooting and killing prominent conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, will face trial for the crime.
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“It is ordered that the accused, Tyler James Robinson, be referred to trial,” ruled District Judge Tony Graf after a day of arguments in which the prosecution argued that there is sufficient evidence against Tyler Robinson to proceed with the case, while the defense maintains that the evidence is insufficient, according to the U.S. network NBC.
Following the magistrate’s decision, Robinson’s defense attorney entered pleas of not guilty to all charges against his client. The prosecution accuses him, among other charges, of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony that can carry the death penalty. The next hearing was set for October 23.
Robinson is accused of killing Kirk with a rifle shot from a rooftop during an event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. The murder of Kirk, 31, co-founder of the group Turning Point USA—one of the main grassroots organizations of the MAGA movement—and a close ally of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, shocked U.S. politics and continues to emerge in multiple debates and forums.
Before issuing his ruling, Judge Graf allowed attorneys from both sides to present their closing arguments.
Utah County Prosecutor Ryan McBride stated that “it is not difficult to understand the motive,” arguing that “the accused’s views were contrary to the positions that Charlie Kirk publicly defended.”
He also argued that Robinson endangered the lives of attendees at the event where he allegedly killed Kirk, claiming that “you cannot fire a rifle at a crowd of 3,000 people without knowing that it creates a great risk of death for everyone near the target.”
However, Robinson’s defense rejected both arguments: attorney Richard Novak argued that it cannot be proven what motivated the shooting because “there is no evidence about what Mr. Robinson really thought, if he was the shooter, about Charlie Kirk.” “We have no testimony that Mr. Robinson ever spoke about Charlie Kirk, heard anything he said, or commented on Kirk in the past,” he added.
Additionally, another defense attorney, Staci Visser, indicated that the legal aggravating factor argued by the Utah prosecution, according to which Robinson’s act represented a great risk of death to others, does not apply because there were no multiple shots or threats. “There is a single act, a single shot, a single bullet, a single victim,” she emphasized.
For his part, Judge Graf admitted this aggravating factor in the ruling and declared that the State has fulfilled its burden of proof at this preliminary stage. However, he did not rule on the merits of the case.
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